Over the past few years, many photographers and other creators have participated in Heartstorming Think Tank Team Teleconferences. They meet together in 90 minute videoconference sessions twice a month. In addition members meet with me for a minimum of one hour a month in individual sessions.

The facilitated teleconferences function like a think tank. Members present challenges, explore opportunities, and solve problems. Members have stretches between sessions which encourage them to reach outside their comfort zones. Photographs are posted on a private blog.

While the topics vary based upon the needs and desires of participants, they are likely to include:

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Sales and Marketing

Portfolio Enhancement

Sales Promotion

Sales Training

Create a Manifesto

Social Media

How to Find the People Who May Give You What You Want

How to Create Proposals That Sell

Alternative Markets for Creative Professionals

Peer and Coach Reviews

Vacuum Clean the Universe for Ideas

Creation of Personal Work

How to Send Effective eMail

How to Use the Telephone Effectively

Branding

And Much More

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Videoconference participants call from anywhere in the world. I am a great believer in diversity. While some people have never seen each other in person, videoconferencing is the next best thing. We have built remarkable trust and support. Members have expanded their services. Some are creating books. Another has offered a television pilot to a network. Several have had exhibitions in galleries. Their businesses are growing and changing.

All have grown creatively and developed new products. They have expanded their markets. They have clarity on who they are and what they stand for.

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The first 90 minute session is free.

If you decide to continue,

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Group videoconference sessions are $75.00 and payable via creditcard

Group participants receive a 25% discount on individual sessions.

I invite you to try out this new format and to experience it for yourself.

Effective branding puts you first in line in the minds of potential clients. I liken it to taking a flag to the top of a mountain that represents your brand and saying, “This is my mountain. This is how I want you to see me.” Knowing who you are and what you stand for makes you more attractive.

This image, sent by artist Greg Leshé, arrived as I was writing this article. To me, it illustrates the home as a metaphor for the heart radiating passion in all directions. Each heart processes infinite energy differently.

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The most successful entrepreneurs learn to transfer their passions into their brand. In a sense, they create their own box that expands and contracts as they grow and change.

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Artists may brand themselves based upon Jungian archetypes. The storyteller. The dream weaver. The taste maker. Etc. Modifying these positions make them unique. For example, I create images that weave dreams and encourage people to identify with their own wants and desires. Or more commercially, I tell stories which touch people’s emotions in the deepest places that helps them remember my clients’ products.

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An artist’s brand represents where he or she is and where they are going. It is significant for an artist to claim what he or she stands for.

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Branding is the outward representation of being who you want to be, doing what you want to do, and having what you want to have. Branding can lead to personal fulfillment.

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The good news is that when you are clear what you are passionate about, there is infinite room for new work. It allows you to grow out of category and into expressing your vision.

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If your brand is based upon the ways you see, it will represent you in a unique way because we are all different.

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Some Heartstorming questions to ask yourself:

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Are you really different? How do you know?

Are the ways you see yourself congruent with the ways others see you?

Is your brand so tight that it forces you into a corner?

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Scott Indermaur

REVEALED

Heartstormer Scott Indermaur was primarily a corporate photographer until a few years ago. Scott was a member of one of my on-going Heartstorming Think Tank Team Teleconferences when this idea was conceived. He ventured outside of the box and created a personal project called Revealed.

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Read how Scott’s vision and brand found clarity and revealed itself to him through spiritual investigation and collaboration with other seekers. See how Rhode Island NPR saw how their national show – THIS I BELIEVE became THIS I BELIEVE REVEALED.

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REVEALED is an exploration of self – ​a glimpse into the spiritual expressins and personal beliefs of the participants. Using individual portraits and short personal essays, Scott Indermaur has created a one-of-a-kind photographic series that uncovers what lies beneath the surface in each.

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In giving subjects the time to reflect and connect with their inner selves, The REVEALED Project demonstrates both out singular uniqueness and the common thread we share with one another. The result is the intention of expression as revealed in a wooden box.

Choosing symbols for my box would likely be different on any given day, but my revelations would likely be similar. The box rests on a book, not just any book. It is a high school yearbook which represents a major passion and theme in my life — teaching. My career began as a high school art teacher. Teaching is giving. Painting represents a kind of going to the well for fuel. The two small prints are representative of a collection of over a thousand small prints created in three months after 9/11. I was mesmerized and sat in front of the TV sketching everyone who appeared on the screen. The pastels symbolize a lifetime love of color. A headset plugs into my MAC or into my iPhone and connects me to the outside world and allows the world to become my classroom. The sounding of the small Tibetan bell reminds me to center when sressed. I see the box as a collection of symbols for the relationships between giving and receiving.

There are people on the planet who are takers. For them, it feels so good to take they need to take more.There are people on the planet who give only with an attachment to what they will receive. There are others who give and that feels so good they give more. That is where I used to live until I ran out of gas. I have learned to focus on another possible configuration. I receive in order to give. In that sense, creating is receiving the energy from the universe and giving it to others.This way of teaching allows me to give away what I have received. This means living a life of conscious balance.

Welcome

Ian Summers Heartstorming Blog is about the creative spirit, the generation of ideas, the creative process, inspiration, marketing what we create, pithy quotes, questions and pondering on the creative process, idea stimulators and much more.

I co-create an environment where people are safe to bring what they love and what matters to come into being by being a compassionate teacher and expressive painter.

To learn more about Heartstorming Career Coaching click on the video tab. Read the Heartstorming Philosophy. Then call me to arrange for a complimentary one hour coaching session.

I am also available for public speaking on many topics related to the process of creating.